The Chronicles of Nicole Yakari
by Izaranna
Summary: We all know the story of Zane Truesdale after his third year. But what about before that? Students got to Duel Academy by boat, there was a whole different ranking system and Duel Academy had the least number of students ever. Find out how all of them changed that. Featuring Atticus Rhodes AtticusXOC
1. The Beginning

'_I never thought about how I would die, but dying for someone I love seems like a good way to go.'_

"Dad, are you watching Twilight again?"

The man sitting in front of the TV blushed before stuttering out an affirmative. That's my dad, Akira Yakari. He's in his 50's but looks 30, like all the other native Japanese.

My mom was a 'new age' Japanese. You know, the people who live in and around Domino city. Her name was Emily Strait and she was a real estate agent. My dad was new to town and was looking for a house and BAM! Cupid strikes again! They got married at 29 and had me at 39. 6 years after that she ran away with an angel and now, hopefully, she's watching over us from heaven (and laughing at our idiocy).

That was 9 years ago. At present I have to get to Domino Harbor in 30 minutes or I'll miss my ride and dad is trying his best to make sure it happens.

"Dad get up. We have to go NOW!"

"Just a minute Nicky, the movie's almost over!"

"It just started!"

"But these modern movies finish so fast!"

"Stop acting like an old man, you old man!"

He started mumbling before getting of the couch and heading for the kitchen. He took the popcorn out of the microwave and muttered "It would be best if she _was _late for the boat."

That's it. I dragged him up the stairs and shoved him into his room. I wrenched open his closet and took out a blue shirt and a pair of trousers and told him to put them on in 5 minutes or I'd drive there myself. He immediately complied.

I left the room and went downstairs. I dragged my suitcases near the doorway and put on the Academy-provided boots(dark blue). I straightened out my uniform and grabbed the car keys, my suitcases and my wallet and went and stood near the car patiently.

5 minutes later, he hobbled out with my rucksack and his popcorn. My dad loves his food. Yeah, I know he's weird.

We drove in silence barring the constant munching noises. At 5 miles an hour. An old _blind _man walked by us before I snapped and told him to hurry up or I'd ask Miss Alice to drive me there. He accelerated reluctantly. To 20 miles an hour. I sighed.

"Dad I know you don't want me to go but this is the school of my dreams! I'm going to that school one way or another so you might as well pretend like you want me to do this."

He stayed silent for a while and then he sagged in his seat. He looked a million years old.

"Okay." He said quietly. He sped up and we reached the Harbor with 10 minutes to spare.

After mom moved on (I will never say or think died) all me and dad had left was each other. He was my whole world and vice versa. Sure, I had friends at school and sure, he had work buddies but they weren't people we could talk to and expect them to understand. It was probably because of lack of trying but we weren't complaining. And now that I was going to a school on an Island off Domino coast, dad's afraid that I'm going to leave and forget all about him. And I tell him I won't and he smiles and acts like he gets it but we both know he doesn't.

I got out of the car and wore my shoulder bag. Dad took out the suitcases from the trunk and started loudly complaining about his aching back and OW WOMAN WHY FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DID YOU PACK ROCKS FOR?! Yep, he was back to normal.

Two dockworkers helped my dad carry the suitcases as he thanked god for small mercies and underpaid workers. I stifled a giggle at the looks on the peoples' faces. That's the goofy loony I love and adore. As he happily chatted away I sorted out the paperwork and signed a checklist and soon it was time to board.

"Dad, it's time for me to go!"

"Coming Nicola!"he quickly waved goodbye to the crowd surrounding him and skipped towards me. Yes. Skipped. Like little red riding hood.

I hugged him tightly as he stroked my hair. I breathed in his disgusting cologne that miss Alice got him last Christmas and felt like crying. Hey, I never said I was ready for this.

"Good luck Nicky. And for the record, I still think this is a hare-brained scheme to give me a heart attack so you can grab your inheritance early." I gave him a light punch and told him he was a nutcase. He said "At least squirrels _like_ me."

That was a low blow. Squirrels hate my guts. They keep on throwing nuts at me.

I chuckled lightly and he chortled like Santa or 'that big-bellied oaf who throws presents on people's begonias'.

"I love you Dad."

"Love you too. Now go!"

He hauled the suitcases into the cargo haul and I walked up that wooden bridge-y thing that looks like an overgrown plank.

I stood by the rail with a few other students and waved goodbye as the ship left port. He gave me a raspberry and stuck his tongue out at me. I laughed a bit and he continued making silly faces till I couldn't see him anymore.

I turned and headed towards the deck and a guy in a maître de uniform gave me a map that showed the location of my room and all the females-only spots on the ship. I made sure my wallet was in my uniform's pocket and walked to the room.

It was a quaint little room with a deep red wallpaper and a mermaid-shaped lamp. A single bed with a fluffy pillow and duvet took up most of the room and it confused me. Wouldn't we be at the island before 6'0 clock?

I shrugged my worries away, put down my rucksack and headed for the 'females-only' deck because it was closest and, contrary to my dad's belief, I was not feeling the least bit seasick.

There weren't many people on the ship. I guess this school really is for the elite.

I stood near the rail again, this time on the opposite end of the ship and felt the seawater send sprays of salty water up into the air. I licked my lips and it tasted _really _salty. Yummy.

"-and I was this close to getting my head chomped off but I got away just as its jaw **plunged **into my surf board."

A lot of cheering and oohing ensued. I looked around and located the source of the utterly ridiculous story.

**TARGET LOCKED ON**

What was a _boy _doing on the _girls _side of the ship?

##############################################################################################################

I was in the middle of the retelling of my epicest adventure to a group of gorgeous seniors when a voice that sounded like nails on a chalkboard made its presence known.

"And just what are you doing on this side of the deck?" I turned around expecting a teacher but instead I see a…_girl._ Yelling. At **me**. Moi. Atticus Rhodes. To **leave.**

Is she even human?

"Excuse me Miss, but are you talking to me?" I said amiably.

Maybe she had a severe case of myopia or something. I mean, I'm not bragging or anything, but I am kind of gorgeous. Girls can't help but fall for my charms. Ah, the curse of being beautiful.

"Yes I am. Why, are you deaf?"

Maybe she's insane. You know, I think I did hear something about special classes for the mentally challenged.

"No not at all. Hey, are you a freshman too?"

Getting her to open up a bit ought to do the trick. You see, you gotta go slow with these kinda people.

"Are you implying something?"

Oh God! She's a paranoid, mentally-challenged freshman with a severe case of myopia!

"I'm a what?" She said evenly. Whoops, I think I said that out loud.

I grinned sheepishly.

"Sorry, I was thinking about a friend of mine is all."

She looked at me incredulously. "You have friends?"

I snapped. What's this girls problem. No girl has ever insulted The Atticus Rhodes! Unless…

"Are you a lesbian?"

She blinked. Twice.

"Hey, it's okay if you swing that way. I've got nothing against homos' at all." I gave her a reassuring smile.

She pressed her lips into a thin line and looked at me like my math teacher does when I flip him off.

She advanced towards me and I kinda, _maybe_ took a step back. _Maybe_.

She pinched my ears and dragged me off the deck. What is she? Hulk version 2.0?

"Ow, Ow, OW Woman! What the heck are you doing?"

"I'm putting a brown-hairy thing back where it belongs." she said calmly. The babes around us were giggling. At me!

Why me?

She (FINALLY!)let go of me ear and then immediately proceeded to kick my butt. What. The. Heck?

I skidded across the shiny floor and hit a mop/bucket rather gracelessly. The guys started laughing at me. Great first impression. Note the sarcasm.

This'll take forever to explain convincingly to the ladies!

The raven-haired reincarnation of medusa dusted her hands daintily and walked away, swishing her rather fine hips mockingly in my face.

I stared at her dumbstruck as the people milled around me and pointed at me rather rudely, occasionally laughing in the 'in-your-face' kinda way.

I looked at them glumly and proceeded to showcase my misery by imitating a heaving sob that I heard in one of my moms' soap operas.

And the people laughed again. But at least it was at something I wanted them to laugh at. Hey, what can I say? I love being the centre of attention.

A teal-haired boy walked up to me and lent me a hand. I grabbed it gratefully and he heaved me up.

He glared at everybody rather coldly and everyone slowly shut up and walked away a bit more hastily than was the norm.

"What did you do to piss off a girl?"he asked coldly. But he looked kind of interested and I _do_ aim to please so…

"I'll tell you over brunch." I wrapped an arm around my soon to be best friend and leisurely walked to the dining hall.

"Get off me." He grunted.

This was going to be the start of a Beautiful Friendship. I smiled smugly.


	2. Laying Down The Rules

Ch 2

"…and then she walked off like some wannabe femme fatale!"said the obnoxious idiot in front of me.

And an idiot he definitely was.

What moron calls an obviously pissed off girl a lesbian?

What did he think he was doing on the girls' deck anyway?

Who did he think he was?

Did he even think?

"-and then she said, hey are you listening to me Zaney?"

My left eye twitched.

Ignore it and it shall go away. Wasn't that what Alice said to do when there was a fly in the room?

"Yoo-hoo! Hello! Earth to Zaney!"

My right eye twitched.

Moron. Does he even know what Zany means?

"Hey Zaney, you in there?"

I snapped.

"Shut up."

"Za-what? I didn't catch that." He cupped his ears and came closer to me.

"I said Shut Up." I said a few octaves higher.

"Oh. Okay!" He smiled brightly and happily munched on his stuffed onigiri. Silently.

My eyes widened in surprise. He knows how to shut up and enjoy the silence. Maybe he isn't a complete moron.

I reached for my glass of lemon-grass juice when suddenly he grabbed it and downed it in one gulp. And then he spit it out. On my uniform. On my only change of clothes.

"Yuck! This stuff sucks! How can you stomach this junk. It tastes like smelly sock serum!"

I calmly got up and walked away. Calmly. Patiently. Without feeling the annoyance slowly sinking in the pit of my stomach. Resisting the urge to strangle him. Like Master Shepherd taught me.

"Hey Zaney! It looks like you pissed in your pants! Here, take this towel and wipe it off!" he yelled for the whole hall to hear.

Screw resisting. I'm going to kill him.

The people around us witnessed Atticus Rhodes squealing like a girl and begging for mercy.

Well, what do you know Master Shepherd. I _am_ a sadist. :)

As the ship docked on an admittedly picturesque island, I dignifiedly power-walked away from the crowd of chattering girls, who for some reason think that what I did was _cool_. Yes, I know. I'm pretty sure if I'd done that at my old school they would have harassed me for the rest of my school life for 'humiliating, like, the c~utest guy on, like, the P~lanet!'

In fact, I think I _have _done that. Thrice. Okay, so I'm a goody two shoes. So what? I just can **not** stand people who break the rules.

Like that brunette. Not that I care about what he thinks but seriously. I mean, come on, Lesbian? Seriously?

After mentally preparing myself for the induction ceremony, I followed the trickle of sophomores to what I hoped was the Auditorium. And with luck (Lady Luck! I thought ye had abandoned thy faithful believer!) it was the correct place. The weird thing was that most of the first years came through another door. Huh. Oh well. Mentally shrug of the paranoia Nicola(I'm not paranoid you stupid Idiot!).

"Good evening students. Welcome to Duel Academy! And to those who've come back for another year, welcome back!

As most of you know, Duel Academy is a private school for the best of the best. You will not be allowed entrance unless you have scored admirably in the written as well as the practical tests that are conducted by our highly qualified teachers at the Kaiba Dome.

There are three houses and depending on your score, you shall be placed in: Obelisk Blue, Ra Yellow and Slifer Red. If you have scored 70-80% you shall be placed in Slifer, 80-90% then you are shuffled into Ra, and scoring 90-100% will place you in Obelisk.

The facilities for all three houses are different and students of other dorms are not allowed to enter the premises of another unless invited to do so. All dueling challenges should be issued via a dueling request form and the challenger must accept unless they have even more urgent matters to attend to.

Throughout your school years there will be many special events such as the Duel Monsters Spirit Day held every 3 years, The White Dragon Ball held every 4 years, the Interschool Friendship Duel held annually to promote amenities between the various dueling schools across the globe and the recently issued request for a Tag-Team Tournament by our Kaiser Hideki and Queen Yuka.

Now to the new comers, let me share an Academy secret with you. Here at Duel Academy, apart from the House Ranking System there are the Royale Ranks. These positions do not necessarily need to be filled and if no one meets the qualifications, they shall remain vacant. The positions are as follows:

The Jack. This is the lowest position in the Royale Ranks (RR) and can be filled by a Ra or an Obelisk with a grade point average of 10.0. He has to be the best of the Ra and Slifer dorms.

The Queen of Obelisk Blue. This title currently belongs to Miss Sapphire Yuka. Any female that exceeds miss Yuka's ability shall be given the title. I should warn you young ladies, it is quite difficult to best our 3 time Top ranking duelist!*chortle*

Then there is the King of Obelisk Blue. This is the highest normal position ranted to a student. He will have to be the best of all the dorms and excel in all aspects.

And last but certainly not the least, The Ace. This position is the most coveted and the most difficult to attain. He will have to be the best of the entire student body including most of the teachers. This position has been filled only twice in Duel Academy History. Our current Ace is Kaiser Hideki, Ross Jefferson.

But enough about that, I'm sure most of you are tired from the journey here and wish to get to your dorm rooms. Please enjoy your facilities and welcome once again!"

"That was the longest and most boring speech I've ever heard!" The idiotic brunette moaned. I found it interesting. It cleared up a lot of the grey areas in my knowledge.

The Royale Ranking System sounds like a bit of a joke to be honest. And a Ball? Yeah, _that _totally seems plausible in a _school_.

All the freshmen were asked to head to the Card Shack. Now where on earth is it?

Apparently I wasn't the only clueless one.

"Hey, do you know where the Card Shack is?" A girl asked me.

"I'm just as clueless as you are."

The girl seemed disappointed and a little afraid to ask anybody else, so I asked an upperclassman wearing a blue blazer where it was located because "I'm new here."

The upperclassman looked sort of surprised. She did look rather timid. She stuttered out the directions and I nodded and thanked her.

I told the other girls to follow me and we headed towards the Card Shack.

There, all of us got our uniforms (2 sets), another pair of blue boots (we got a pair when we bought the books), a PDA, a timetable and a map of the school (labeled thank goodness).

The uniforms were all of different colors but the basic style was the same.

A blazer (Red, Yellow and Blue), black or white pants(or skirts in the girls' cases), an inner shirt (black or white) and hair ties (even for guys who had long hair, which comprised of most of them. Is long hair in fashion or something?)

If you had longer than shoulder length hair, you had to braid them. Ha, the idiot brunette has to braid his hair! I cackled evilly in my head. Hooray for school rules! :D

Not that I care about his misery or anything. That's just _absurd_.

I looked for the Obelisk blue Girls' Dorm which was conveniently highlighted on the map. When I found it, I was dumbstruck. How did they get the money to build something like this?! And I'm pretty sure the lake surrounding the PALACE! is man-made. What. The. Heck?

Suddenly, I'm not too sure about this school anymore. Where's dad when you need him?

Dear Lexi, How r u sissy? Ur big bro is doing gr8! This school is even better than mom described! There are so many cute grls 'round here and I'm all fired up! I already made a new frnd! His name's Zaney and he's really cute. Maybe you & him could go out! And I cud b best man at ur wedding!

3 Bro-bro

"And send!" Atticus Rhodes was sending a message to his little sister as we both headed towards the Mess Hall, which should really be called the Grand ballroom with a capital G because it is _huge_.

Did I mention Master Shepherd is nearly bald? Yeah, he very nearly is. Even when I was 6 he was semi-bald. I wonder how old he is…

"Hey Zaney, this is a picture of my little sissy! Isn't she cute? She's gonna study here too. But it'll be when we're seniors! How sad is that! I'll only get one year to embarrass her and get her a boyfriend!" Atticus spoke.

I pity his sister.

"Hn."

"I know right!? How unfair is that!"

Very unfair. His poor sister has to handle him for a whole year.

I'd been unpacking my stuff in my rather spacious, color-coordinated dorm room when Atticus burst in and dragged me out holding my pen holder in one hand and my alchemy textbook in another. And he's been talking non-stop since then. I don't even know half of what he's saying.

Why me?

We sat down on one of the long tables and began filling our plates. There was a lot of food on the table. There was oriental, continental, and all other kinds of –entals. We would have begun eating then, but suddenly the hall went silent and a blonde guy wearing a White coat with blue trimming stood up.

"Good evening everybody and welcome back to Duel Academy. For those of you who don't know, I am Kaiser Hideki and for all intents and purposes, I'm the Obelisk Boys' Dorm Head."

"I am Sapphire Yuka and for all intents and purposes I am the Head of Obelisk Blue Girls' dormitory. I see quite a few new faces this year. I'm sure you'll find the atmosphere here pleasant and reminiscent of home.

Now most of you know this, but I shall go over the Dormitory rules once more so that none of you may have the excuse that you have forgotten.

There are three very important rules that **must **be followed.

One, apart from the dorm tenants, no other student is allowed to set foot in the girls' dorms. Not even the male teachers. This rule, if broken or undermined in the slightest way will result in immediate expulsion. No exceptions.

Secondly, curfew is at 8 O'clock for first and second years and 9 o'clock for third and fourth years. Any students found loitering around after hours shall be punished accordingly.

Thirdly, classes are meant to be gone to, not bunked. If I find out that any girl from this dorm has skipped classes, there will be serious repercussions.

Apart from these three rules there are a few others. Uniforms should be worn properly, bathroom breaks for applying make-up is strictly prohibited and hair must braided properly if hair are below the shoulders. No use of mobile phones or electronic gadgets. E-mails to friends and family may be sent from the computer in the library. The girls on campus are a fifth of the schools' total population, which is why we have lesser facilities than the boys so please be careful while handling the equipment and-"

"I don't see why girls get primitive facilities if boys are quicker to destroy their own." All eyes were on me, but I didn't care at the moment. It was unfair and unjust and I was taught to express my opinions.

"Well, we have a ratio of 5:1boys to girls at this school so if you look at it financially, investing money for girls is rather pointless." She said with a glint of amusement in her eyes and a slight smile on her lips.

"That's a very sexist opinion. Socially, its degrading for girls to get the shorter end of the stick. Out of the 56 freshmen, only 8 were girls. And this is the highest number of girls admitted into the school since its' founding."

It was true. And girls had nearly identical uniforms to the boys and they had only one rank: Obelisk. Meaning that the only way a girl could get entrance into this school was if she got 90-100% on the entrance test and practical. Which was completely unfair as the test _was_ difficult. Even for dueling fanatics like me.

"I agree with the feminist. Girls and boys are supposed to be equal in this day and age." A girl spoke from the back. She had a sharp face and even sharper eyes. She had the snotty attitude label down pat.

But I'm glad someone agreed with me. I may be confident, but I _am_ human. Even I need a bit of support sometimes. I'm sure it's kind of obvious that this is the first time anyone has stuck up for me. I was not exactly Miss Popularity back at my old school. I was too tall, too goody-goody, too opinionated and too unfeminine. And when one boy called my dad a 'smelly-old man' back in preschool, I broke his nose.

"I'll talk to the Teacher in charge of the Girls' dorm about it." she said, with a very pleased and elegant smile on her face. It's like everything she says and does is elegant. Like she really is a queen. It's like the room lights up a bit every time she walks in and when she leaves, she leaves you breathless. She has silky brown hair tied up in a French braid and beautiful green eyes that kind of glowed. She's about 5''3 and really petite. But she has a presence, like she's someone you can't ignore.

"And that about wraps up my speech. Please enjoy your stay at Duel Academy, and remember, this is your home."

And we all began eating and the girl who had called me a feminist came up and sat in the empty chair next to me. She called herself Missy Ambrosia and she said I was about the only 'non-girly chick in this place that doesn't piss me off'. I would learn later that this was the closest she would get to calling us friends.


End file.
